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This is not a duplicate, the other question asks about adopting the Babylonian calendar system, please remove the notice.

The original names for Hebrew months, as they appear in Torah - are just serial numbers, counting from Nissan, being the first month, Iyar the second etc. As in:

"ויסעו מרעמסס בחודש הראשון, בחמישה עשר יום לחודש הראשון" (Num 33,3)

"בשנת הארבעים, לצאת בני-ישראל מארץ מצריים, בחודש החמישי, באחד לחודש" (ibid 28)

Many interpreters mention that this is one of the ways of a remembering the Exodus.

This is consistent with the ruling of the Gemmorah that "ישראל מונים ללבנה", which literally means "Israel count months". However, the current names we use were brought from the Babylon exile, and those names are proper names, lacking the serial counting, and, therefore, remembering Nissan and the Exodus.

How come such a big Deoraisoh issue was forgotten, and the Sages decided to override the naming of the Torah and the remembrance of the Exodus in counting Hebrew months?

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    Where do you get that it’s a commandment to count from Nissan? Further, why is it a problem that I call the months by a different name? Ask that we call the first day of the week Sunday instead of יום ראשון.
    – DonielF
    Jan 28, 2018 at 2:20
  • @DonielF " Ask that we call the first day of the week Sunday instead of יום ראשון" - IIRC, Ramba"m alludes to this idea and might have stated that there could be a halachic problem using these secular names. Can't say if it was Ramba"m or someone else. It's not a great analogy, here. After all, Esther and Daniel, as an example, use the Babylonian names for the months, so it is in Tanac"h. We certainly don't see this with the secular names of the week.
    – DanF
    Jan 28, 2018 at 2:31
  • I think Sefer Hatoda'ah has a detailed explanation of why the Babylonian names were used. I think there was supposed to be a continual remembrance of our Galut, and it is supposed to help us pray for Redemption. However, I'm uncertain as to where you arrive at the notion that the usage of month names is in any form a way of overriding the remembrance of the Exodus. The Torah, nowhere, has a commandment regarding even how many months there are supposed to be in the year. Read esp. Ibn Ezra's long explanation on this problem. It may offer some couter-arguments to your premise.
    – DanF
    Jan 28, 2018 at 2:36
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    Maybe you could distinguish your question better and get clearer answers if you first asked if there is an explicit commandment to count months, and if so, why the sages overrode it
    – b a
    Jan 29, 2018 at 14:56
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    Maybe instead of just saying that this isn’t a dupe, you can explain why it isn’t, what it is about your question that that one doesn’t address?
    – DonielF
    Jul 27, 2018 at 0:18

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